Well, it has already been a couple of weeks but I think everybody is still reeling from what was an absolutely epic night with Booka Shade at 560.The German duo lived up to expectations and delivered an amazing performance.

Here’s the set DelayNoMore recorded for this special occasion. Enjoy and stay tuned for more appearances to be announced soon for October and November with a couple of great out of town surprises.

Following our big night at Mansion, we woke up mid-afternoon to a beautiful sunny day. After grabbing a healthy lunch at an outdoor patio nearby and realizing that we had managed to sleep all the way to the beginning of happy hour, we made our way back to the apartment and started planning our party itinerary for the night. The DJ Mag pool party at the Shelborne sounded like our best option to start with so we headed from downtown to South Beach around 7 PM. As soon as we stepped out of the cab, we could hear the thumping beats coming from the back of the hotel. Downing the rest of our vodka Red Bulls in hopes of dissipating the last of the previous night’s hangover, we headed for the entrance, got our wristbands and were instantly dropped into a sea of half-naked, drunk twenty-somethings, grinding and fist-pumping to James Zabiela’s music.

His style is definitely unmistakable and long before we could see who was behind the decks, we definitely knew it was him. What other house DJ’s do you hear scratching in the middle of their set or use the effects as much as this guy does? The constant adding of various sounds and effects give his music that distinctive mechanical thumping sound, and the pool-side crowd was eating it right up.

Towards the end of his set, through Farshad’s connections, we found our way back stage into the VIP area where we connected with Carl Craig and his entourage. Having met Carl in Vancouver a few weeks before when he played at Lotus definitely helped make the experience surreal for us as he and his lovely wife introduced us to their close friends: Luciano, Matt (Radioslave) and another Detroit techno legend Stacey Pullen.

After Carl’s set, we were invited to tag along to the Planet-E party next door, at Shore Club, where Carl opened up with some soul for the first hour as a few of us grabbed a bite to eat and mingled before the crowds arrived. As much as we loved hanging out with our newfound friends, this was still only our second night in South Beach, and with that many things happening, we were itching to go out and explore other clubs and parties. Shortly after meeting up with JJ and his sister, who had just arrived form Vancouver, we decided to get a move on.

One artist I really wanted to see this week was Joris Voorn. For the past two years, I have bought most of his releases and I was really anxious to hear what he sound like live. Having turned Farshad into a huge fan himself, to the point where he bought all of his releases on vinyl, he was just as excited to see him as I was. The Rejected showcase featuring Voorn was taking place at Set, another beautifully designed nightclub in the heart of South Beach, so we decided to head that way and check it out.

After a couple rounds of shots and some exploring around the club, we claimed our spot on the dance floor as Joris Voorn was getting ready to play. As soon as he got on, the energy in the club shifted and the vibe became more bouncy, driven by the classic house beats. Over the course of the following hour and a half, he took his set from house to tech-house with a slight diversion into the Double 99 classic speed garage anthem Rip Groove, all the while keeping the constant funky bass line that has become his signature. Overall, I would have to say this was the best DJ set I have heard so far this year and with so much happening this week, I am really happy we managed to catch it.

We left the club around 4:00, made one last quick appearance at the Shore Club where we had the pleasure of meeting Martin Buttrich. From there, we went for some late night eats at Gerry’s diner, where we were served sliced avocados and told to make our own guac, as well as poached eggs that looked like they were boiled in urinal water. Note to self: stick to cheap pizza slices.

So far Miami Music Week has been amazing and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

Our flights down to Miami were fairly uneventful and we landed just as the sun was setting. A quick cab ride took us downtown and in no time we were sipping champagne with our good friend Celine who is hosting us for the week. The girls wanted to catch up so Farshad and I decided it was going to be a boys night out. Not many people had arrived in Miami yet, since Ultra doesn’t begin until Friday, so the streets were relatively calm and there were not that many good clubbing options. We did, however, want to hit Mansion at some point in the week, and the Calvin Harris-Congorock-Riva Starr and Benny Benassi lineup seemed like a great excuse to pay the legendary club a visit.

Having no idea of the size or type of venue mansion would be, we walked in and made our way through the entrance foyer, flanked by a bar on one side and a majestic stairwell on the other. Making our way to another smaller area, we could hear and see the main room ahead and made our way through the crowd, down a few steps and straight onto the massive dance floor. The setup was quite impressive; originally built as the French Casino in 1936, the interior is reminiscent of an old theatre, with two large bars on each side of the dance floor and a massive balcony area used mostly for bottle service. The visual and light displays were very impressive and the place truly felt like a world-class super club.

Benny Benassi was behind the decks when we arrived and stayed on for the two hours we spent there. True to his style, he played crowd-pleasing hand-in-the-air electro and even sprinkled it with a slight dose of dubstep (what is the world coming to?).

We were really hoping to catch Riva Starr, but two hours of Benny is all we could take so we decided to go explore the area and celebrated the fact that we could still buy Jagr shots and lap dances at 5AM by, well, buying Jagr shots and lap dances at 5AM. Massive hangover ensued.

Being on the road in Asia has been a fantastic experience so far. Seeing different parts of the world and experiencing different cultures has been great but living as a backpacker has its drawbacks, especially when it comes to exposure to good shows and live performances. So after 6 weeks of bad hip-hop, cheesy electro remixes of the same bad hip-hop songs, poorly mixed by local DJ’s and blared through shitty blown-out speakers, I was ready to get my club on. Looking through the Singapore club listings, I found out that one of my favorite DJ/producer would be in town the following weekend, playing the legendary Zouk nightclub. A string of emails and Facebook messages later, we managed to convince our friend Steve, who was in the Philippines at the time, to come meet us for a party weekend. Pulling a few connections, Steve managed to get us guest list and VIP entrance. We felt like rock stars walking through the neon-lit tunnel leading to the club’s main room.

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Living up to the expectations, Zouk offered an impressive sight, with its multi-level room that managed to create a fairly intimate vibe for the size of venue. Modeled after Pacha Ibiza, it is by far the nicest nightclub I have seen in Asia. DJ Hong was on opening duty and played a nice mix of funky tech-house, doing a great job at getting the crowd primed for the headliner.

About an hour and too many $22 Vodka/Red-Bulls later, Tocadisco took to the stage. Playing off his Mac and using Traktor Scratch Pro, he kept things in the same vein as the opening DJ and started his set with some darker sounding tech-house tracks, slowly working the crowd up to a hands-in-the-air frenzy when he dropped his remix of Whippenberg’s Pong. He then followed with what seemed like an interminable set of really noisy Dutch electro, even including a remix of Day n’night by Kid Kudi. I mean, really???

Fortunately, he slowly backtracked and came back to my preferred style of driving tech-house and spent the rest of his 3-hour set alternating between tech and cheesy poppy electro, which allowed for nice long smoke breaks and some mingling with locals and tourist from exotic places such as West Vancouver. Yes, the world is getting that small…

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Overall, I would give Tocadisco a 8/10 for mixing an track selection (even though I didn’t like a lot of it, he did get famous through more commercial remixes and it was to be expected that he would play in that genre), 6/10 for charisma and stage presence (smiling shouldn’t be this hard), and 11/10 for wife hotness. Memorable moment of the night: playing Chinese drinking games with the Taiwanese firefighters in the smoking room.

After 3 months on the road and away from the decks, I was itching DJ again so I was very excited when, through mutual friends, Farshad managed to arrange a couple of gigs for us in Shanghai. Ryan (DJ Trix http://www.myspace.com/djryantrix) was very helpful and was a great host, taking us out for food at a few of his favourite hang-outs.

Our first gig was at Shelter, a small basement club, somewhat reminiscent of Lotus, back home, just smaller. Interesting fact, Shelter is actually an old bomb shelter converted into a nightclub. Our first half-hour was plagued by technical issues with Serato, which made Farshad regret not bringing some vinyl with him. The club was fairly quiet as it was a week night but we were very happy to see a few Vancouver faces that came out to hear us play. We also met some of the local producers which was nice as well.

The next night, we shared the decks with Ryan and David (Slackerton, http://www.myspace.com/slackerton) at Logo and this time, without any technical issues, played a wicked set and had a rocking time with the local crowd.

Sadly, this was Farshad’s last night in Shanghai and after a couple hours of drunken sleep, I headed out the door to see him off to the airport. It was really nice to get to hang out for a week and get to DJ together again. We were both exhausted and hung over and I was looking forward to getting some sleep, but I had one last thing to do before I could relax; the night before, we were introduced to Mimi (DJ Mia), who works for Udancecn.com, an underground electronic music radio station based out of an advertising agency in Shanghai. She invited me to come over the following afternoon to record a one hour set for the station, and even though I was ready to drop dead, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. So on the way back to the airport, I started sorting through my music and planning my set, trying to feature as many Vancouver and Canadian producers as possible.

I barely had time to shower and grab a couple tracks form Beatport and I was out the door again, trying to make my way to the studio in the sweltering Shanghai heat. I finally got to the nondescript black office tower and was showed to the 6t floor offices by Mimi. The setup was quite impressive; two floors of open-space loft style offices with a giant plexiglass bubble hanging over the reception desk, the bubble being the recording studio. I was warmly welcomed by the staff, offered some beer, which I gladly accepted (nothing like a little hair of the dog) and got setup for my set.

Djing there was a great experience and even though I was ready to pass out by the time it was over, am grateful I stuck it out and also extremely grateful to Maia for allowing me the opportunity. I will post a link to the podcast once it’s up.